Giving Matters

The work of non-profit organizations throughout New Hampshire is significant and ongoing. So each Saturday morning, at 8:35, we take two-minutes to examine the benefits generated by this work. We share the stories of people from all walks of life who have improved their lives with the help of these organizations.

This joint production of NHPR and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is hosted by Deborah Schacter, and produced by Andrew Parrella and Lois Shea.

Melanie Everard, was an opera-skeptic. “I was much more than a skeptic, I disliked opera intensely.” A surprising sentiment from a music teacher, and it made her an unlikely candidate to participate in an educator’s workshop conducted by the Metropolitan Opera.

The Kurn Hattin Homes for Children was established in 1894 for children whose families are not able to care for them. Lyssa Jackson was such a child, born to parents with mental illness. “I lived with my mother until I was about eight and at that point, I wasn’t going to school very often. My mother was keeping out of school because she was not feeling secure with my teachers because of her own internal issues.”

The Gilmanton Year-Round Library opened in 2009 -- entirely the product of volunteer labor and donated funds. Jenn MacLeod and her four kids could not imagine the town without it. “My son, who’s 3, comes into the library, takes off his shoes, hangs up his coat and says ‘I’m home.’”

The CareGivers is dedicated to helping elders stay in their homes, and provides services that help them do so. Elsie relies on the CareGivers for help grocery shopping and getting to appointments. And each month, she welcomes a volunteer from the CareGivers Caring Cupboard food pantry.

The Boys and Girls Club is more than a place to simply do homework or hang out with friends. Brittany Wheeler joined the Concord chapter four years ago, during her first year of high school. The club fosters a sense of community among the participants of its after-school program. As Wheeler says, it’s a place where kids “can feel safe after school and not get into trouble.”

Fred and Rosalind Slavic built their home on a thickly wooded site in Fitzwilliam a half century ago. They wanted their 300-acre tract to remain in a wild state, so they have willed it to the Northeast Wilderness Trust. The trust will dismantle the buildings and retain an easement on the land.

Families in Transition (FIT) provides safe, affordable housing and support services to families and individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The goal is to help people achieve self-sufficiency. Rebecca moved into Families in Transition housing when her youngest daughter was two months old.

The North Country Teacher Certification Program is a collaboration between Plymouth State University and White Mountains Community College. The program aims to increase the number of highly qualified teachers in the North Country.

Amelia Alton was a pre-school teacher with more than 20 years of experience, who wanted to be a classroom teacher, “I always wanted to try my hand at the first and second grade level. But, I needed a different certification.” In 2010, with the help of the NCTCP, Alton went back to college and received her certification.

The Children’s Dental Network offers preventive dental services in 27 schools in and around Derry, NH to children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to those services. Jeanne Carroll and her husband are both college grads, and considered themselves “middle class;” they never thought they would have difficulty providing dental health care for their three children.

According to the NCADV, one in four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. Betsy Kohl knows that statistic intimately; and with three daughters and four nieces, she also knows that one of them may be a victim of domestic or sexual violence.

The CDC estimates that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men in the United States experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives. While trying to overturn those numbers with its community-based violence prevention programs, Turning Points Network helps victims of domestic and sexual violence escape abusive relationships.

The work of the New Hampshire Food Bank is well established in the state, providing millions of pounds of food every year to food pantries and soup kitchens north and south. Less well-known, perhaps, are the programs it has developed that address the causes of hunger -- helping people get training that leads to employment and to food security.

WOW stands for Winnipesaukee Opechee Winnisquam, but the rail trail that winds across Laconia might just as well be named for the exclamation of its patrons as they marvel over the views on offer. Plans in the works will have the trail’s running nine miles, connecting Meredith with Franklin.

Though unfinished, Laconia police chief Chris Adams sees the trail as a positive addition to the city. “One of the things I love doing when I’m driving around is looking down the trail head to see families and couples and children riding bikes or walking.”

Prescott Farm has always been a landmark for Gretchen O’Neill. “We’re very grateful that our daughter, Gabriella, can come here to attend the camp, or that we can come up and explore it and walk the trails.

The Hand-in-Hand program of New Hampshire Catholic Charities connects youth volunteers in the North Country with elderly, low-income and disabled homeowners who need help with home maintenance. The youth volunteers spend a week in the summer pruning, painting, swinging hammers.

Judy O’Leary, along with her husband Bob, coordinates a team of youth volunteers. She describes it as a a win-win situation. “It keeps our youth busy, and it helps our elderly who are really in need of help as they get older.”

Mary Jill LaRocca is an elementary school health teacher in Manchester. She helps students navigate the barrage of unhealthy messages that kids are exposed to. She turns to Media Power Youth’s Media Literacy for Safe and Healthy Choices curriculum to help her students think critically about messages that promote violence, alcohol use, junk food and more, so they can be wise media consumers.

The Monadnock Folklore Society is the steward of New Hampshire’s musical and dance heritage. Samuel Foucher, who is 17, received a scholarship from the Society to study with legendary contra dance piano and accordion player Bob McQuillen. McQuillen, who died in February, 2014 at the age of 90.

Emilia Ornellas is a student teacher at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She works with middle and high school students in the Student Enrichment Program in the Arts, also known as SEPIA. She explains that the program offers art classes Manchester students grades K-12.

Dhahiro Osman is an outgoing student who participated in the SEPIA program. Her interest? Self-improvement. “I thought that I’d give it a try, because I’m not a good artist; I thought this might be my chance to be good at it.”

Star Island, on the Isles of Shoals, is one of just four maritime islands in New Hampshire. It is owned and operated by the nonprofit Star Island Corporation. For years, Star has been a retreat and conference center and is also open to the public for day trips and overnight stays. Brad Greely is a minister who has a lifelong history with Star Island.

BG: Both my parents and my grandparents were people who came to Star Island. So I was brought at the ripe age of six months out to a conference. Then I went on to have a family and started bringing my own kids out here.

WREN (formerly the Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network) provides support, training, and networking opportunities to people operating small businesses in northern New Hampshire. They also operate two storefronts and two farmers’ markets for local vendors.

“I’ve been a painter all my life.” Jeannette Fournier’s medium is watercolors and a few years back she and her husband relocated to the Littleton-area. “We happened to drive through Bethlehem and I noticed the WREN organization on main street. I thought, “this couldn’t be more perfect timing.”

The Northern Forest Center helps create economic opportunity and community vitality from healthy working forests.

David Benckendorf participated in the Center’s Model Neighborhood Project, and was one of 40 homeowners who purchased and installed a wood pellet boiler with the center’s help. “there were a lot of advantages to it and it really peaked my interest.” He eventually converted his oil furnace to a wood pellet boiler.

The New Hampshire Humanities Council’s Connections program is an adult literacy program that aims to develop communities of readers. Hari Sharma, who is originally from Bhutan, joined Connections via his ESOL class.

The books he read with his connections were selected around to focus on important cultural lessons. One unit was based on American suffrage icons including, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Farnum Center provides treatment to people with substance use disorders. It recently moved to a new facility which includes a new medical detox unit, the only one in the state not connected to a hospital.

Dr. Cheryl Wilkie works with patients at the center. “We have a five day detox, a 30-day residential treatment center and then outpatient services that follow them as long as they need it.

Peg Kelly fought three different types of cancer over ten years. Towards the end of the decade her chemotherapy was designed more to reduce her discomfort than eradicate the cancer, because she was dying. She and her husband, Dennis, called the Lake Sunapee Region VNA & Hospice, who had been providing at-home service to Peg as she battled the cancer. This time when the Kellys called, they asked about the hospice service.

Kurn Hattin Homes for Children was established in 1894 for children whose families are not able to care for them. Lyssa Jackson was such a child, born to parents with mental illness. “I lived with my mother until I was about eight and at that point, I wasn’t going to school very often. My mother was keeping me out of school because she was not feeling secure with my teachers because of her own internal issues.”

The Gilmanton Year-Round Library opened in 2009 -- entirely the product of volunteer labor and donated funds. Jenn MacLeod and her four kids could not imagine the town without it. “My son, who’s 3, comes into the library, takes off his shoes, hangs up his coat and says ‘I’m home.’”

The CareGivers is dedicated to helping elders stay in their homes, and provides services that help them do so. Elsie relies on the CareGivers for help grocery shopping and getting to appointments. And each month, she welcomes a volunteer from the CareGivers Caring Cupboard food pantry.